Chicken Wire for a Ceiling?

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Anon112

Songster
6 Years
Apr 15, 2018
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Mid-Atlantic/East Coast
I'm building a run for my chickens. I'm doing it by myself, with limited tools.

I have framed out the shape of the run (sort of a house/pentagon shape) and have put either wood siding or hardware cloth as the walls. I have purchased quarter inch hardware cloth for an apron (I will have to do the thing of putting it on the ground and then covering with dirt, as it is incredibly hard to dig in this area of my yard), which will run about 4 feet out from the walls.

But now I need to figure out what to do for my ceiling/roof. The run is attached to a moderately sized coop which does have a nice roof, and all the chickens (there are 5 of them) fit more than comfortably inside, so I'm not going to do a real roof, so to speak. Do you all think it would be safe to use chicken wire as my ceiling/roof?

The walls are all about 5-6 feet high, and they are secured with hardware cloth or wood. The main predators in my area are coyotes, foxes, raccoons, and possums. Would a raccoon or possum (the two creatures I'd imagine climbing up that high) be able to tear through chicken wire?

If you're wondering why I don't just do hardware cloth, my budget for this project is already over what I'd hoped to spend, and I already have a big roll of chicken wire. If I can use it, that would be great. But obviously if hardware cloth is necessary for safety, I'll shell out for it.
 
For a run ceiling, chicken wire is fine as long as you don't have raccoons or fox out during the daytime.

Some folks use bird netting and there's some electrified netting too but imagine that's pricey.

Having cover on the run is generally to keep flying predators out, which the chicken wire would suffice. Most predation is done at night by the four-legged creatures, so then it sounds like they are safely tucked away there.
 
If the run is uncovered/free-standing (like mine) having hardware cloth as the walls is expensive and superfluous. I just have 6' welded wire fencing and a very secure coop. If I could, I'd cover it with chicken wire but since my main worry is day predators, I have things to hide under and my coop is secure, I haven't needed to.
If the coop and run are one unit and has a roof, then absolutely.
 
As long as the chickens are securely locked inside the coop at night, I'd be comfortable enough with a chicken wire roof. Could a raccoon climb up and pull it apart? Maybe, but unlikely unless it was super motivated to get in. I think in most cases predators will test your fence but if there's no easy and obvious way in, they'll move on.
 
rosemarythyme said:
As long as the chickens are securely locked inside the coop at night, I'd be comfortable enough with a chicken wire roof. Could a raccoon climb up and pull it apart? Maybe, but unlikely unless it was super motivated to get in. I think in most cases predators will test your fence but if there's no easy and obvious way in, they'll move on.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's what I'm hoping. There will be a hinged door that will lock them in the coop at night. (I say "coop," it's a coop/run prefab where the run portion is just too small for 5 adult chickens.)

My second phase of this project is shoring up the prefab, because some of the wood is starting to rot.
 
Anon112 said:
Yes, that's what I'm hoping. There will be a hinged door that will lock them in the coop at night. (I say "coop," it's a coop/run prefab where the run portion is just too small for 5 adult chickens.)

My second phase of this project is shoring up the prefab, because some of the wood is starting to rot.
Click to expand...
Depending on how big that unit is, might want to considering converting the whole mini run/mini coop into a coop at the same time. Very few prefab coops are truly big enough for 5 adult birds (the Over EZ type would be one, but most kits-in-a-box would not be) and ventilation can be a concern as well. If this is still a young flock and they're getting along inside it right now, they may not get along so great once they're older and bigger.
 
I would not trust chicken wire on top of the run. Raccoons are excellent climbers, they can easily rip through chicken wire, and they are active during daylight hours, too. I have seen the raccoons in our area patrolling my yard in late morning (8-9ish) as well as afternoon (4-5ish) when the sun was out and the chickens were in the run.

Where are you located, and do you get snow in the winter? If you do, then neither chicken wire nor hardware cloth will work for a run ceiling, because they will collect snow on top and the whole structure can get weighed down and collapse. I learned that the hard way, when my chicken wire covered garden (that had an iron pipe frame) collapsed completely after the first decent snowfall. So if you get snow, you'll need something with larger gaps that will allow the snow to fall through, even when it's wet and clumpy. What I have on top of my run is 2x4" welded wire. It allows snow through, but raccoons can't fit through and can't chew or rip it. It will allow smaller things through, like weasels and fishers, unfortunately, but a solid roof (the best option) is not in the cards so that's the best I can do. We have more raccoons here than weasels or fishers, so at least I've covered the likeliest scenarios.
 
As you can see, we all have different opinions. That's not surprising as we all have different experiences and have read different things. In my opinion, there is no perfect answer.

A big dog or big raccoon can tear chicken wire or hardware cloth. There are some old threads on here with photos to prove that. If you use heavier wire to stop that then you generally have holes big enough that snakes, weasels, or such can get through. The heavier wire gets expensive. Often the weakness is not the wire but how it is connected. I don't know which wire mesh will be best for you.

But a couple of suggestions. In my opinion, you do not need aprons 4 feet wide. 18" is more than enough. I assume your hardware cloth rolls are 4 feet wide. I'd split the aprons so they are 2 feet wide, which cuts down on materials used. You can attach those to the bottom of your fence so it lays flat (making sure it is connected enough that nothing can get through. My preference is to bend it so about 6" of wire sticks up vertical and you have 18" horizontal. I just believe that is easier to keep things from getting between your apron and the bottom of the fence.

5 or 6 feet high is not very high to support a ceiling you can walk under, especially if it sags. It is not going to be very comfortable to stay bent over when you are working in there. Raising your fence height is probably not that practical. I'd suggest you install a support in the middle of your run to hold that ceiling up enough that you can walk under it, at least in the middle. Your back will thank you.

If you split the hardware cloth for the apron you will have some left over for your ceiling. Maybe not enough for all of it but probably a good bit.
 
I used chicken wire for the overhead protection on my 2nd run, and have LOTS of racoons in my area.

Have heard about and seen pics of raccoons who supposedly got through chicken wire, but in my personal experience it's a fairly strong fencing material and takes quite a bit of force to breach. Is it for every situation? Definitely not, but I was ok using it for overhead protection on my setup.

Also, just like other fencing varieties, chicken wire comes in different wire gauges and hole size, each with different respective strengths. The stuff I used I failed to kick out a 4x8 panel of it when removing from the floor of our old rabbit tractor that was in ground contact for 2yrs, the pneumatic staples pulled out easier than the fencing broke from my kicking; ended up cutting it off.
 

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